The Han and the Tang Dynasties

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The Han and the Tang Dynasties
The Chinese Dynasties

Order of Chinese Dynasties

Xia (pre-history – c.2200-1750 BC)
Shang (c. 1750-1050 BC)
Zhou (c. 1050-221 BC)
Oin (221-207 BC)
Han (206 BC – 220 AD)
Period of Disunity (220-589 AD)
Sui (589-618 AD)
Tang (618-907 AD)
Song (960-1279 AD)
Yuan (1271-1368 AD)
Ming (1368-1644 AD)
Qing (1644-1911 AD)
Republic (1911-1949 AD)
P.R.C. (mainland)/R.O.C. (Taiwan) – (1949-present)

Han Dynasty







  • Lasted 400 years
  • One of the greatest periods in the history of China
  • The ethnic majority of China today still refer to themselves as the “Han people”
  • Prospered domestically in agriculture, handicrafts and commerce
  • Extended it political and cultural influence over Korea, Mongolia, Vietnam, and Central Asia
  • Combined Legalist methods with the Taoist Philosophic ideals

Notable accomplishments
  • Military prowess
  • First established the Silk Road
  • Officially became a Confucian state

Government
  • Divided into 2 systems, the central and the local government
  • Central =
    • organized into a head cabinet of officials called the Three Lords and Nine Ministers; this cabinet was led by the Chancellor
    • Officials were graded by rank and salary and appointed to posts based on the merit of their skills rather than aristocratic clan affiliation
  • Local government =
    • Former: Two administered levels—the county and the xian (a subdivision of the county
    • Han empire was heavily dependent upon the county governors
  • The main tax from the population was a poll tax
  • There was also a land tax

Culture, society, and technology
  • A time of intellectual, literary and artistic revival
  • Military technology
  • Advanced use of cast iron and steel
  • Chemical warfare: horse-drawn vehicles carrying bellows to blow powdered lime strong forth
  • Written Scientific achievements
    • Wang Chong
      • the water cycle in meteorology
    • Zhang Heng
      • argued that moonlight was reflected light from the sun
      • described the reasons for solar eclipse and lunar eclipse
  • Great inventions of the era
    • Paper
    • the forging of steel
    • the first hydraulic-powered armillary sphere by Zhang Heng
    • hydraulic-powered trip hammer for agriculture and iron industry
    • the winnowing machine for agriculture
    • the rotary fan
    • seismometer with a swing pendulum

Beginning of the Silk Road
  • 138 BC Emperor Wu dispatched Zhang Qian to the Western Regions and this pioneered the route known as the Silk Road
  • Became a trade route




Links
http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/china/early_imperial_china/han.html
http://www.metmuseum.org/TOAH/hd/hand/hd_hand.htm

Video
http://www.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/history/dynasty-han.cfm










T’ang Dynasty (618-907 AD)



· The high point in Chinese civilization
· This dynasty was declared by Emperor Tang Gaozu who was a general who overthrew the weak, young son of the Sui Dynasty’s founding emperor.
· Period of progress and stability
· Had large territory
  • Maintained a civil service system
  • Greatest age of Chinese poetry
  • Buddhism became a major aspect of Chinese culture
  • Silk Road was re-opened during this time and goods and influences flowed in both directions.

Xuanzang
  • During this dynasty, a Buddhist monk named Xuanzang journeyed west along the Silk Road looking for true, original Buddhist scriptures to bring back to China. He spent 16 years on this quest and then returned to Chang’an where he translated the hundreds of palm-leaf books he brought back, thus greatly influencing Chinese Buddism.
  • In addition, Xuanzang kept a travel journal which kept first-hand accounts of the “barbarian” states he visited. The Emperor was very interested in learning about these places from Xuanzang’s journal.
  • Xuanzang’s trip became the inspiration for many Chinese storytellers and was the source for the great 16th century (Ming dynasty) novel The Journey to the West, known in the West as Monkey.

Cultural Diversity
  • During the 7th century, Arab conquest of the Persian empire sent thousands of refugees fleeing east long the Silk Road to China; therefore, Chang’an filled with large amounts of Central Asian peoples—Zoroastrians, Nestorians, Jews, Christians. All lived together. The population rose to 2 million people, making Chang’an the largest and most powerful city on earth with a opulent culture.

The City of Chang’an
  • Chang’an during this time was laid out on a vast scale. Its perimeters measured 5 by 6 miles, and the city was surrounded by huge stone walls and a moat. Main avenues of the city were 500 feet wide running north-south to aligne it with the yin and the Yang, and the city was divided into 108 wards or neighborhood, each enclosed by it own walls.
  • The Imperial City sat at the North and faced South and was the seat of the T’ang government.
  • Chang’an has numerous temples, both Buddhist and Daoist, and two great market squares. The Western market was the foreign. district where Central Asian traders and merchants met their Chinese counterparts. In this market one could hear exotic, rhythmic, music from the capitals along the Silk Road. The Eastern Market was the fashionable district for the wealthy and powerful. Just to the west of the Eastern Market was the famous Three Cities of the courtesans, the entertainment quarters. It was here that literati mixed with elegant courtesans and conducted business, wrote poetry, and relaxed in fabulous luxury.
  • In addition, every three years, the Imperial Confucian examination brought thousands of hopeful young scholars to the capital in search of fame and governmental careers. Even if they failed to pass the exam, they would stay in order to try again. Therefore, Chang’an was filled with elegant, wealthy, and brilliant men who created the conditions for a strong intellectual and artistic culture.

Reign of Emperor Minghuang and the Rise of the Arts
  • The reign of Emperor Minghuang, from 713-756 is considered to be the cultural height of the T’ang dynasty.
  • Emperor Minghuang was a serious musician as well as patron of music, dance, poetry, painting and the 100 Entertainments.
  • Three famous poets, Wang Wei, Li Bai, and DuFu, served Emperor Minghuang’s court.
  • Famous painters of Emperor Minghuang’s court were Han Gan, who developed the art of horse painting, setting future standards and aesthetic patterns for this genre, and Wu Daozi, who developed the genre of landscape painting.

Music in Emperor Minghuang’s Court
  • Being an excellent performer on the small drum and an innovative and crative composer, the Emperor Minghuang loved music most of all the arts.
  • He organized an academy or conservatory called Jiaofang.
  • As many as 30,000 musicians and dancers were employed in and around the court during his reign.
  • Emperor Minghuang had his own personal music and dance ensemble call the LiYuan which means the Pear Garden.
  • He also reorganized the Imperial Music Bureau to emphasize entertainment music over ritual music.
  • He organized 10 orchestras representing 10 cultural areas of the empire. These cultures were those which were discovered and who immigrated to the city from the Silk Road.
  • Confucian ritual music was still important for the yearly ceremonies which the Emperor performed for the well-being of the nation.
  • The Tang dynasty was one of the richest, most original and inventive cultural periods in all of Chinese history because of its openness to ideas and influences from other cultures and because of its openness to the mixing of aristocratic scholar-gentlemen and lower-class by elegantly trained courtesan women.
  • During this period of Chinese history, the arts flourished.
  • The first purely fictional short stories were written during this time. These stories dealt less with traditional and historical heroes and villains, and more with contemporary scholars and courtesans.
  • One of China’s most famous love stories “The Story of Ts’ue Ying-ying” was written during this time.

Poetry During the Tang Dynasty
· Poetry was still highly revered as a literary form
· Poetry began to show the effects of popular entertainment.
· One style of poetry was Shi which is highly stylized and virtuosic.
· Another form of poetry was Ci, which was meant to be sung and was considered more low-brow than the Shi.


Suggestion for Lesson Planning using the Dynasties
  • Divide students in to groups and assign each group a dynasty.
  • Require that they explain the dynasty to the class and find poetry that was written in each dynasty.
  • Present dynasty and poetry to the class
  • Make inferences on why the poetry was written the way is was? What was it in the dynasty itself that caused the poets to write as they did:

Links:
http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/china/classical_imperial_china/tang.html

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/tang/hd_tang.htm

http://etext.virginia.edu/chinese/frame.htm

http://www.xabusiness.com/china-resources/sui-tang-chinese-paintings.htm